Digital cameras have been commercially available since the mid-1990s. Early digital cameras were a far cry from their film-based contemporaries in terms of features and convenience of use. First generation digital cameras typically had limited pixel resolutions, short battery life, and modest digital photograph storage capabilities. Moreover, software to upload and view digital photographs was frequently wrought with incompatibilities in then-available operating systems and computer hardware, increasing user frustration, while printing digital photographs on photographic-grade media was largely inaccessible to the average consumer due to a scarcity of laboratories equipped to handle digital images.
Since then, the field of digital photography has rapidly matured, with digital photography first supplementing and then displacing traditional film photography. Currently, virtually all major camera manufacturers offer digital cameras, and the various offerings of digital cameras range from consumer entry-level “point-and-shoot” cameras with an all-in-one form of construction to professional-grade digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras that feature reflex mirror or equivalent systems, interchangeable lenses and numerous accessories, with many classes of digital cameras falling in-between those extremes. As well, many current digital cameras include a capability to capture video in addition to taking still photographs, and digital image and video processing software are now generally included as an integral part of every personal computer. Moreover, the printing of digital photographs is widely available through do-it-yourself inkjet and laser printers and from commercial digital printing presses operated by commercial and “picture-in-a-minute” printing laboratories alike.
The appeal of digital photography has led to the integration of digital photographic capabilities into devices outside the dominion of traditional cameras, in part due to the ready viewability of digital photographs on digital screens and the inherent exchangeability of digital photographs online. In particular, smart phones and similar types of handheld mobile devices regularly include digital cameras for taking digital photographs and recording video. Mobile devices generally provide touch screen user interfaces, a computing ability for downloading and running a wide range of applications, and high-speed data access via wireless technology, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband. As a result, digital images and video can be easily captured, viewed, manipulated, edited, and posted online using just a single mobile device.
Notwithstanding, built-in digital cameras are a compromise. The primary function of a mobile device is not to be a substitute for a full-featured digital camera. Rather, digital photographic capabilities are provided as a set of convenient onboard features, and the digital camera components compete with other onboard components for computing cycles, memory and persistent storage space, power, and physical space. For instance, the digital image sensor, which defines the pixel resolution, is limited in size, as larger image sensors will not physically fit inside a typical mobile device. Moreover, storing high resolution digital images would consume scarce memory and storage to the exclusion of other applications. Similarly, the lens is invariably limited to an extremely short focal length due to the physical constraints of the mobile device's case.
Therefore, a need remains for a photographic system that combines the features of a mobile device with digital photography capabilities more akin to those features found on dedicated digital cameras.